That Ol' Airbending Spirit
Aang had a dream.
It was a dream about people, a dream about rebirth, a dream about the spirit of Air flying wildly across the world once more. Aang believed his dream was ready to be sprung on the waking world, and it was all too appropriate that the start of that future would come from Airbending's earliest past.
"The first Airbenders," Aang was saying into the cool mountain air, "learned their techniques from the Sky Bison. That's why the Air Nomads were so close to their Bison, and why we worked so hard to keep those bonds strong no matter what else changed. We need gliders to fly, but Appa here can do it himself."
Aang took a stance, and began a circle-walking exercise. He continued to speak as he stepped and turned, the movements so practiced that he didn't have to think about them. "Every Airbender had to invent a new technique in order to become a Master and earn arrow tattoos, so we had a really extensive and refined system. But you guys aren't the old Air Nomads, you're the first of the new Airbenders, and you need to find your own way." Aang came to a stop, and motioned to where Appa was watching from the other side of the runway. "So you're going to do what the original Airbenders did, you're going to observe a Sky Bison, and see what you can learn. Appa, yip yip!"
Appa groaned and took off with a flap of his massive flat tail, leaving the ground behind like an unimportant concern. His legs hung loose below him, danging backward with the wind of his passage through the sky. On his own with no direction, Appa flew for his own pleasure and exercise, doing corkscrews and flips and whatever he could think of to accentuate the sense of motion.
Unable to suppress his grin, Aang turned back to his audience. "So what do you see?"
There were about thirty people assembled here on the Northern Air Temple's main runway, all the best pilots in the temple's glider corps. They looked up at Appa's flight with wide smiles and obvious envy, taking in the show with what Aang could tell was obvious expertise. He couldn't wait to see what they developed from this, and was sure that at least some of them would be revealed as Airbenders by tomorrow. He had a great feeling!
Teo, of course, raised his hand first. "Appa's using his tail a lot. That seems to be the main source of his lift and propulsion."
Aang nodded. "Exactly! Anything about the motion stand out to you?"
To Aang's surprise, Teo frowned. "Well, my first thought is that it doesn't make any sense. Appa is flapping his tail, so he's exerting force on the air both above and below him. But that means that the only wind he's creating would be going in the same direction, so it doesn't explain why it's acting as propulsion."
"Well, you know, it's kind of like how a fish swims in water, right?" Aang ran a hand over his shaved head. He wasn't pleased about using water-metaphors this early in the Airbending study. "And I guess bird would do the same thing with their wings. So the way he moves his tail-"
"But that's not what he's doing at all," a glider-woman interjected. Aang recalled that her name was Shuxue. "There'd be more of a flicking motion if that were the case, but Appa's tail is clearly just going up and down. And birds manage because of how light they are, especially in the bones. But your Sky Bison must way at least ten tons. Perhaps that means Airbending isn't about straightline exertion of force?"
"You're on the right track." Aang stood up straighter. "Air is all around us, and it's all connected."
Teo looked back up at Appa. "It must be a pretty complex system, then."
"Yes," said a man Aang remembered as Wu Li. "I mean, I didn't want to say anything earlier, but just looking at this with our eyes isn't going to be very useful. Something more than we can see has to be going on, because that Sky Bison's flying just makes no sense whatsoever. He's banking and diving like he has a rigid wing structure, but he hasn't got wings at all!"
Shuxue nodded. "I noticed that, but I assumed it had created a kind of spiraling wind tunnel for itself. A directed cyclone, essentially."
Wu Li shook his head. "Look at the fur. If there were a cyclonic action going on, the fur would be moving in accordance with it, but it's just pushed back like the Sky Bison is cutting through the air according to natural areodynamics."
"Um," Aang ventured.
"What we need," Teo said slowly, "is a closed course and something to measure the wind motion for us."
Shuxue brightened visibly. "Dust? We have some pretty dusty caverns down in the mountain, and we can use giant fans to excite the particles before each trial."
"Um," Aang ventured.
Wu Li tapped his chin. "Instead of settting up enough fans to get that working, why not just cover the cavern in anemometers? Dual class, of course, so that we get good speed and pressure information. We have the Sky Bison do a few flights, and we can create a data map for the entire cavern. Function of time, of course. That's the only way to manage the changing states as the Bison continues his flight."
Teo was sitting up straight in his wheelchair, and his voice was bright: "We should do both! The more data the better; that's what they always say in the labs. We spend a day doing the dust trails, and then we'll have something really useful to superimpose over the anemometer readings. Come on, let's go see if we have enough equipment on hand." He spun his chair and raced back towards the temple.
"Um," Aang ventured.
The other pilots, including Shuxue and Wu Li, jogged after Teo, all of them excited and babbling things about equestions and measurements and something called 'kinematics' that made Aang want to shiver. Left alone on the runaway, he mumbled, "But you were supposed to feel the Air."
Up above, Appa was still flying for his nonexistant audience.
Aang decided that for his next attempt, a sunrise would be an appropriate symbol. He picked out a cliff on the Eastern side of Kyoshi island, and used some Earthbending to flatten the top and reinforce its foundation. While his next student did some stretches, Aang set up all the accessories they'd need. A quick bit of Firbending lit the incense in the antique holders, and soon the scented smoke was wafting through the air. Aang used Waterbending to pull some of the sea below into a device that Sokka had built for him, a complicated contraption that used a dripping water supply to ring a small bell at precise holy intervals.
He also set up a small anemometer borrowed from the Northern Air Temple, because even if he resented what the tool represented, he really liked how the wheel on the top spun in the wind.
"Okay," Aang announced, "I think we're ready."
"Yay!" Ty Lee's enthusiasm made Aang grin, even if she followed through with a hug that was just a bit too constrictive. After letting go, she stared at Aang with wide gray eyes that contrasted mysteriously with the pink circus outfit she had worn to this meeting. "So what are we doing?"
"The Air Nomads were a very spiritual people. We were in touch with nature, and the world, and the air and animals and all kinds of stuff." He nodded at Ty Lee. "You're one of the most spiritual people I know, so I wanted to see if you had the spirit of an Airbender. If we maintain a moment of perfect serenity together, we can explore-"
"-if the music of my heart is in harmony with yours?!" Ty Lee bounced on the heels of her feet as she waited for an answer.
"Sure, why not?" Aang ran a hand over his shaved head, and then eased himself down into a folded lotus position. "Let's start with some meditation."
"Okay!" Ty Lee shifted to so that she was standing on a single toe-tip, then threw herself into a twirl that somehow ended in a perfect lotus position.
Aang had no idea how that worked, but he decided to take it as a good sign. "Okay, close your eyes, and take a deep breath."
"Aang?"
"Yeah?"
"I know how to medidate."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's okay. Breathing deeeeeeeeep... ooh, that's nice incense."
"Yup."
"It smells really good."
"Okay."
"I feel really relaxed."
"Yeah, uh, that's the point..."
"Like, very relaxed."
"...great."
"It's almost like I'm flying."
Aang opened one eye to check if Ty Lee was actually flying, but all she was doing was swaying in place with a smile on her face that was way to wide. "Are you okay?"
"...I think I'm about to be sick, actually." The smile never left her face.
"Ooookay." Aang raised a hand and tied a quick wind-knot that would shift the breeze so that the incense smoke moved away from Ty Lee. "Now, take a deep breath of fresh air and let's enter a meditative state."
Ty Lee finally seemed get into it, and Aang was finally free to start his own meditation. He greeted Cosmic Oneness like an old friend, and then dived into a few Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know just for the thrill of it. Even though he privately thought it sounded kind of dorky, he found himself giving an, "Ohhhhm," as he achieved pure emptiness.
Once he was freed of the burden of consciousness, he let the universe guide him on his task. His Spiritual Self nudged Ty Lee's Spiritual Self, and metaphorically (it helped to deal strictly with metaphors when one was achieving Cosmic Oneness) motioned at the winds- at the single Great Wind- that covered the entire world. He metaphorically said, "Do you see it?"
Ty Lee metaphorically replied, "I see it!"
"Are you ready to become one with it?"
"I am!"
"We will lose all sense of Self and join with the winds, just as Air Nomads have throughout our history."
"Oh, okay."
"There are no individual winds, just the Great Wind from which all winds come, all winds return, and all winds are!"
"But not all winds."
"Um, yeah, all winds. That's the whole point."
"But I'm a special sunflower!"
"We should really be sticking to the wind metaphors, here."
"Then I need to be my own wind, a breeze and a storm, free to fly against the other winds!"
"No, that's the point, there's no such thing. There are no winds, just one wind."
"Then I guess I'm not very breezy."
"I should have known this wouldn't be easy."
"Hee hee, that rhymed!"
Still deep in his meditation, Aang metaphorically sighed.
"So I thought," Aang concluded with excitement, "that anyone who understood who understood air currents so well as to be as accurate as you must have some kind of affinity. So just tell me, what is it about a flying arrow that appeals most to you?"
Longshot took a long time to consider his answer, of course. Finally, he said, "It's not so much the flying arrow or the bow that fires it, as it is the terrified squealing of the Yu Yan archer I robbed and killed with my bare hands to get his weapons. Every time I shoot an arrow, I think about how much I enjoyed collapsing his windpipe and watching him choke to death."
Then he returned to his usual staring, mute state.
Aang could only hope that a polite smile was still on his face, because he felt like he was going numb from bald head to twinkly toes. "Well, uh, that's good to know, and we'll get back to you if your application has been accepted. Until then, don't contact me. Or us. Bye!"
The more obvious candidates might not have worked out, but that was okay. There were lots of people in the world who craved a kind of freedom, and there wasn't a single path of independence.
Bato of the Southern Water Tribe was on the twenty-seventh day of a month-long solitary fishing trip when Aang dropped by to visit. They exchanged pleasantries, and then Aang said, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Avatar. How can I help you?"
Aang motioned to the sea around them, empty except for the icebergs and occassional walrus malling a penguin. "You seem more solitary than a lot of the other Water Tribe warriors."
"Do I?"
"Well, you stayed behind when you were injured that time. I'm still sorry about that map thing, by the way."
"It's okay, it's water under the bridge." Bato adjusted the fishing line in his hands, then tied it down to the side of the boat and moved on to the next one. "I suppose Sokka and Katara didn't really talk about why they came back to you, after we left together. I spoke of my longing for my pack, my fellow warriors, and they realized that their true pack loyalties were to you."
"Oh." Aang didn't want to let this one go that easily, not after all the disappointments he'd had so far. After all, Bato hadn't really said anything unsuitable, and Aang himself enjoyed his connections to his friends and family, and to the other Air Nomads. "But you take these long fishing trips all the time, without taking even your closest friends. Are you sure you aren't looking for a little freedom, free wind action?"
Bato looked over with raised eyebrows. "I'd be happy to take people along, but I'm really partial to the taste of these certain fish you can only find out here, and everyone else in the tribe thinks they smell so bad when you clean them that their taste isn't worth it. But I haven't had a sense of scent since Hakoda accidentally broke my nose when we were kids."
"Oh." Aang let himself slump against the side of the boat. "So I guess you wouldn't be that big on a vegetarian lifestyle, either."
Bato chuckled. "We're not as loud about it as Sokka, but I don't think he's more partial to meat than any other Warrior. If I may, Avatar, perhaps you're focusing on the wrong kind of freedom?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're focusing on the way the Air Nomads you knew lived, but the world hasn't really fostered that kind of behavior in a long time. Kindred spirits wouldn't necessarily be living in accordance with any of the old ways, but would perhaps find new ways to express that kind of thing. Subtle and possibly secret ways, so that they could fit in with the people they know."
That was a good point. Just because people like Teo and Ty Lee stood out amongst the three other nations didn't mean they belonged to the lost fourth. Their circumstances were special, but that didn't mean they had what it takes, just yet. Maybe surviving an even more restrictive lifestyle was a sign of greater spiritual strength, and better odds of finding a real Airbender!
"Thanks, Bato! I know exactly who I need to see!" Without waiting for a reply, because that's just how Airbenders roll, Aang flicked out his glider and took the skies again.
"Please, try to stay with me, On Ji. This is important."
The Fire Nation girl's eyes once again fell to meet Aang's own, but not even a second later her gaze once more returned to the big blue arrow on his shaved head. Despite that, she said, "I'm listening. You were saying that dancing is the path to freedom?"
Aang wasn't sure if he had her full attention, but decided to push ahead anyway. "Yeah. That's what I was trying to show you- all of you- with my dance party. Even if you can't rise up and overthrow the Fire Lord- not that I want you to anymore; Zuko is a good guy- you can still fight back against how they try to imprison your hearts by expressing yourself. Do you get it?"
On Ji nodded without taking her eyes off of his arrow. "So, we're going to try dancing now?"
"Yeah."
"Slow dancing with your hands around my waist?"
"Um..."
"Or something faster, sweatier, and more subversive, like you did with that other girl?"
"...let's just focus on you expressing yourself for now, and I'll watch and see how it goes."
She finally tore her eyes from his arrow. "So, something... What did you call it that time? Freestyle?"
"Yeah!" Aang nodded, and for some reason the nodding went on for a moment longer than he intended, but he decided not to worry about that for now. "Freestyle! Reach deep inside yourself, find who really are, and express that with the motion that feels most natural to you. And if the air around you starts to respond, go with it and see where the motion takes you!"
"O- kay." On Ji looked around the little hilltop where they were holding their impromptu class, moved over to the highest spot, and took a loose stance. "Here goes."
Aang leaned forward, while butterflies had their own dance party in his stomach.
On Ji began to move, and-
-and it appeared that her inner-self was some kind of lice-infected hog-monkey.
Aang was so surprised by the ungainly flailing, that he didn't realize that On Ji had tripped until she was rolling screaching down the hillside. He did his best to chase after her and hoped that the spontaneous power of flight would choose now to make its long-awaited appearance, but he only caught up after On Ji's ground-based collision with the big jagged rock.
An hour later, the village healer declared that self-discovery through dance would have to wait for the fractures to heal.
Katara was the first one to realize he was back in Republic Center, of course. She might not be able to read the winds, but she could read Aang like a book with big colorful pictures. His campfire this night was no different than that of any of the construction workers helping to bring the city to life, but Katara walked emerged from the darkness with certainty. "On Ji didn't work out, either, huh?"
Aang couldn't hold back a wince. "Not only that, but you need to remind me to ask Zuko to help cover some bills. Getting someone mobile again after two broken legs and a hundred and fourteen sprains is really expensive."
Katara's own wince was a testament to her empathy, but she didn't say anything. She just sat down beside Aang and waited for him to lean into her.
Aang didn't leave her waiting long. "I can't believe how hard this is! The natural state of the world is to have four nations, and everything is made up of a mix of the four elements. How can the element of Air be so gone from people?"
Katara's voice was calm against his outburst, as always. "It's not gone. You're still here, and just because you haven't gotten anyone to Airbend yet doesn't mean you won't ever. And there's still the other option we're hoping for."
"I guess." Aang let out a sigh that nearly put out the campfire. "But I worry about that. About putting so much pressure on our family. I don't want any kids we have to feel like⦠like I feel now."
Katara gave him a pat. "We all have pressures. It comes from saving the world. And you can't worry so much about it that you take too much on yourself."
Aang couldn't bring himself to so much as nod. They sat together for a while, watching the campfire. As it started to burn low, Aang flicked a finger and stoked the flames to rise once again, no Firebending required. "I'm going to have to come up with some new tricks to try, before I head out again. Or I could just mix up my old tricks and have the Northern Air Temple try dancing and Ty Lee try watching Appa fly. That might be worthwhile."
"Or," Katara said, "you could assemble a harem of likely women and see if you can breed a new Air nation."
Aang considered her words. "Sounds like more work than the other way. I'll stick with what I have."
Katara chuckled. "Also, I'd probably kill you."
"You have it backwards. We want more Airbenders, not less."
"It's good to have a dream."
END
